Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer isn't best known for his shy and retiring personality, however he has had to settle with a modest $682,500 salary bonus this year. This matches his annual salary, and while a lot of money for everyone else, is only half the amount it could have been if the company had been seen to perform better.

Ballmer replaced Bill Gates in 2000 and in the eyes of analysts, hasn't been the best choice to lead Microsoft. There have been reports of some shareholders asking for him to be removed from the position.

Microsoft have had another under performing year in various sectors, and a major bone of contention is Windows Phone 7. They also want to focus on expanding into other key markets in the industry.

Reuters add “In Ballmer's favor, the company's compensation committee recognized his success in launching the Kinect hands-free gaming system for Xbox and the online Office 365 product, while building up the Azure cloud computing platform and Bing search engine.”

We can't imagine he will be finding it hard to live comfortably. He owns 3.95 percent of the company shares and is classed as the 33rd richest person in the world, with a fortune of $14.5 billion in his personal bank account.

Kitguru says: We wonder if he is happy with his bonus, or if he really cares at all?

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